


Elevator Meeting

by motorbike_on_the_avenue



Series: 30 days cheesy tropes challenge [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 30 Day Cheesy Tropes Challenge, Elevators, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2018-10-22 15:44:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motorbike_on_the_avenue/pseuds/motorbike_on_the_avenue
Summary: All human AU for the 30 days cheesy tropes challenge.Dean's in the elevator listening to a group of woman gush over Castiel Novak.When the doors stop to pick Cas up, Dean totally gets why.





	1. Chapter 1

The doors shut, those stupid new promotional posters of Sam joining together. Dean closed his eyes. Sure, he loved his brother, but come on. He had to see the real thing at home, did he need to see his face everywhere he went in the office too? And for such a long amount of time, since these elevators were ridiculously slow?

The answer was yes. Because they’d chosen Sam to represent them in their new advertising campaign, and now his face was everywhere. Dean had given him hell when he found out, and Sam had had a permanent bitch face.

But Sam was the shining star of this law firm, and he didn’t really have much of a choice. He was the youngest, the brightest (the best looking out of the new bunch of lawyers they’d just hired), and this had really put him in the boss’s good books.

Enough that when Dean had been ‘let go’ from his latest job, Sam had enough pull to get him a job doing admin for the company.

Den had been a bit funny at first, relying on his brother for work. But as Sam pointed out, he didn’t need to keep it for long, and this was just to tide him over until he found himself something.

Dean didn’t have enough money to be unemployed for even a couple of weeks. And asking his brother for money would be worse than taking the job.

Plus, the job wasn’t that bad. He liked getting coffee, and getting to chat to everyone for all the different walks of the firm. He was good at being told what to do, and charming the clients on the phone to be patient with the lawyers.    

Sure it had only been a couple of weeks, but Dean hadn’t even started looking for anything else yet. The money was better than what he could earn bartending, or getting a couple of days fixing cars in a garage. And he liked the people – Charlie up in IT, (who more often than not used her skills to do a little digging and find out for her own personal curiosity if the clients were guilty or not), Ellen one of the three lawyers running the place and her daughter Jo who was still in law school but still stopped by every evening to see her mother.

The lift chimes open at the next floor down, and Dean opens his eyes from where he’s leaning against the back wall. This floor is painted white hallways, glass offices set along the walls. It’s some kind of magazine that has this floor, Dean recalls. The building the law firm is based at shares its premises with 13 other companies. Harvelle, Singer & Turner is on the second to last floor, and to get down to the basement Dean has to bypass every single one.

A couple of girls in sparkly dresses with deely boppers on their heads get into the lift, giggling, and swatting at each other’s make-up. Dean shifts to the side, checking them over, but there’s no one who catches his interest.

He’s more agitated about having to go to this building office’s party. It’s to celebrate…something Dean doesn’t quite remember. The opening of the building? No that didn’t seem right. Maybe it was somebody’s birthday, though that didn’t ring any bells either.  

‘Does anyone know if Meg will be there tonight?’ One of the girls asks her friends, checking out her lipstick in the shiny panel buttons. Dean has heard of Meg Masters – everyone in the building has. She’s the daughter of the guy who owns the top floor business. Dean isn’t entirely sure what they do – he’s been told not to ask too many questions about Mr Masters – but Meg strides around the building like she actually owns it.

Maybe she does.

‘Eurgh, of course she’s going to be there. When does she ever pass up an opportunity to party?’ Another girl answers 

‘Sure, like that’s the only reason she’s coming,’ the girl in a red dress snorts. Dean finds his interest rising. ‘It has nothing to with the man of the hour. God, how many years has she been trying to get her claws in him?’

Man of the hour…yes. The reason for the party comes to Dean then – one of the workers on the second floor won some big grant, giving the charity he works for an insane amount of money. Dean remembers Sam telling him about how everyone in the building was really pleased about it. It would mean the charity wouldn’t have to close down, something that had been a possibility.

‘When did they move onto the second floor? 5 years?’ says the girl in the red dress again, when none of her friends answer her. Dean sees two of them roll their eyes at each other, but they’re smiling like they’ve been through all this before.

‘She’s got to still be hanging around for a reason though. I mean if he really wasn’t interested in her, wouldn’t she have just given up by now? Meg might be a spoilt brat, but she knows when to let things go,’ says the girl who started the conversation.  

‘No way,’ red girl dress says, quite loudly. ‘There is no way that Castiel Novak and Meg Masters have ever hooked up. I can’t believe you’d even say that!’ Dean raises an eyebrow. Red dress seems quite upset about this. The friend who said it – Dean thinks her name is Rachel, they’ve shared this elevator a couple of times before – shrugs her shoulders.

‘I don’t know. Meg always looks like she knows something the rest of us don’t whenever he’s around. And she’s way too possessive over him for nothing to ever have happened.’

‘No. No way,’ red dress girl is shaking her head. ‘I do not believe that Castiel would ever let anything happen with Meg. She’s vile.’ Dean has to silently agree.

He notices one of the girls at the back of the group eyeing him up. She flashes him a smile and Dean give her a grin back, then lets his eyes drift around the small space again. He really doesn’t need to start up an office romance. It hasn’t gone well in the past.

‘Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’ve decided. Tonight’s the night I’m going to make my move on Castiel.’ There’s a stunned silence and then a few of them burst into laughter, while another shakes her head and says ‘oh, Hannah no.’

‘What? I’m an attractive woman. Me and him have spoken several times and it’s always been pleasant.’

‘Oh, pleasant. I’ll be expecting the wedding invitation any day now,’ the girl who smiled at Dean says.

Hannah throws a dirty look at her, and Dean’s surprised by the venom in the glare. Joking about this Castiel guy is clearly a no-no.

The lift pings open again and suddenly all the air gets sucked out of the lift. Dean looks up, past the girls who are suddenly standing ramrod straight.

Standing where the doors have opened, stands a man. He’s slightly slouched over, one hand tucked casually in the pocket of his jeans, grey sweater over the top of a white shirt, leaving the collar out. Messy dark hair, and the bluest eyes Dean has ever seen.

Dean finds himself standing a little straighter himself. The guy’s face creases into a smile as he takes in the whole lift staring at him, but he moves into the space the girls have made for him.

‘Good evening, Mr. Novak,’ Hannah says, and Dean raises an eyebrow. This is Castiel Novak, the guy they’ve all been going on about? The man of the hour, who singlehandedly saved his charity from going bust?

Yeah, Dean totally gets it now.

‘Hannah,’ the guy’s voice is deep and gravelly and fuck Dean’s practically swooning just like all the girls in this lift. ‘Will you be joining us at the party this evening?’ he asks. Hannah shoots a triumph look over at her friends, then turns back to Castiel.

‘Of course. I wouldn’t miss it. We’re on our way down there now.’ 

‘This early?’ Castiel asks. He rushes on quickly, like he’s afraid he’s been rude, ‘well I’ll be down shortly too.’

‘Oh, you’re not coming down now?’ Hannah sounds disappointed. Dean’s phone goes off in his pocket and he takes it out sighing when he reads the message. Sam wants him to go back to his office and pick up the jacket he left slung over his chair this afternoon. An out-of-office meeting with clients has run a little long, but he’s planning on coming straight to the party. Dean doesn’t see why Sam can’t come back and get his own jacket, but there’s no point fighting about it over text message, so he simply tells his brother yes, then puts his phone away. He wonders if there are cameras in this lift, because he’s going to look really weird riding up and down in it.

‘No, I have to see Mr. Masters on the top floor about something before I get to check out for the evening,’ Castiel says, and Dean’s feels a fucking swooping in his belly that he’s now going to get to spend time in this lift with him.

Most people are already at the party, Dean knows. Charlie’s been texting him updates about who’s arriving with who, and who’s wearing what.

Dean idly wonders why Charlie has never mentioned Castiel to him.

Then the doors ping open, onto the basement floor at last. There’s music coming from the double doors at the end, and streamers strung along the bare white walls

‘See you soon, Mr. Novak,’ Hannah says and her and her friends exit the lift. Once she’s stepped out, she looks back, smiling at Castiel over her shoulder, before the doors close.

Dean notices Castiel’s finger is on the ‘close door’ button, just inside the lift.

Then he turns, and seems to notice Dean for the first time.

‘Oh.’ He glances at his hands, like a child caught doing something naughty. ‘I’m sorry, did you need to get out?’ Man, that voice is doing all kinds of things to Dean’s insides, and the unbidden thought of what this man would sound like in bed comes to his mind.

Great. And now Dean’s blushing.

‘Uh, no.’ Castiel tilts his head slightly to the side. ‘My brother’s sending me back up to get his jacket for him.’ Dean waves his phone in the air. You know, just in case Castiel thought his brother was in the lift with him, whispering words into his ear.

‘What floor?’ Castiel asks.

‘Oh, um, 14, thanks.’ Castiel presses the button, then leans back against the wall.

Dean notices that Castiel is staring a little. At him.

Suddenly Castiel shifts a little, turning to face Dean. ‘I know that you saw I was holding down the door close button, and I understand it was a rude thing to do.’ Castiel takes a deep breath. ‘But tonight’s going to be an epic fuck-fest of people wanting my attention and I just wanted a few seconds of not being stared at.’

Okay, guys with voices like that should not be allowed to use the word ‘fuck.’ Because now Dean’s picturing Castiel saying ‘me’ at the end of it, and, oh, man he can feel himself getting a little tuned on.

Because of the word fuck.

‘No problem, man,’ Dean says instead. ‘To be honest, I get it. The way Hannah and her friends were talking about you before you got in, I’m not surprised you need a little time to prepare yourself. I got the impression you were quite the catch around here.’

Maybe he shouldn’t have said that. But all Castiel does is give him a small smile. ‘Yes, people do seem to do a lot of talking around here about me,’ he says.

‘Totally understand that,’ Dean says. Whoops.

‘You understand people talking about you?’ Castiel asks. He’s moved a little closer inside the lift.

‘No, I understand why they’d be talking about you,’ Dean says before his brain can tell his mouth to stop talking. ‘I mean, you’re the guy who stopped your company from breaking down, right?’

‘I shook hands with the right people, and said the right things at a few meetings. Anyone from my company could have done the same things I did and got the same amount of money.’

‘Dude, don’t sell yourself short. Sure, someone else could have done it, but you were the one who did. If it had been someone else, would you be saying that to them?’

‘No, that would be undermining their achievement,’ Castiel says.

‘There you go,’ Dean says. ‘Plus, they’re throwing a whole building party for you. That’s got to count for something.’ Cas rolls his eyes at that, but he’s smiling a little.

‘You must be new here. Any occasion that could even slightly be celebrated in this building gets a party. They haven’t even bothered to take the decorations down for a year, because they know they’ll just have to put them all back up again a few weeks later.’ Something in Castiel’s tone catches Dean’s attention.

‘You don’t like parties?’

‘Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t such a big fan of social interaction?’

‘Honestly, no. You seem to be doing pretty okay.’ Cas smiles a little bigger this time.

Dean takes back every time he’s ever cursed how slow this lift moves.

‘There’s a difference between being good at something and enjoying it. The two are not mutually exclusive.’

‘Like getting hit on?’ Dean questions.

‘Yes. I happen to be extremely good at that, and yet rarely seem to enjoy it.’ Dean laughs, a chuckle that builds into a belly laugh. Cas is smiling fully now, shaking his head a little. He catches Dean’s eye and then looks away quickly.

‘So, this meeting with Mr. Masters? Was that the truth or were you just avoiding getting stuck with Hannah and her friends all evening?’ Dean asks.

‘No, no, that was true,’ Cas is frowning a little now. ‘We need to go over the contract for a new lease on the second floor. It was pretty touch and go there for a while, if we’d be continuing.’

‘You think he might be a dick about it?’ Dean asks. He hasn’t met Mr. Masters but he’s heard the rumours about him. And god only knows who could raise someone as bratty as Meg.

‘Oh, I doubt it,’ Cas says, but leaves it at that.

And now Dean is dying to know. His curiosity is burning away inside of him.

‘So Hannah and her friends were talking a lot about you,’ Dean tells Castiel.

‘Yes? About what?’

‘About you. And certain other members of the Masters family.’ Dean quirks his lips in a smile when he notices a deep blush spreading itself across Cas’s cheeks.

But he also feels a little disappointed, because Cas is straight. Which means the images that have been at the back of Dean’s mind for the past couple of minutes need to stop.

‘They were talking about me and Meg? What exactly did they say?’ Now Dean’s a little bit embarrassed. What is he doing bringing up this guys talked about sex life? It’s none of his damn business.

‘Just that she seems to like you, and that you’re pretty close.’ Dean cleans his throat. This lift is taking a long time.

‘The whole building knows?’ Okay, now Dean feels really awkward now. He shifts a little on his feet, eyes scanning the panel at the top telling them what floor they’re on.

‘Well, they don’t actually know anything. A couple of them suspect you and Meg had something going on. Hannah refused to be swayed, though. She just thinks Meg is persistent.’

Castiel rubs a hand over his face.

‘Meg is a very good friend of mine.’ He opens his mouth to say more, but the doors ping open on floor 14. Dean needs to get out here.

But as eager as he is to leave this conversation, he doesn’t really want to leave this lift.

‘This is my stop,’ he says. Cas scans the name of the firm, just along the side of the wall. ‘Wanna come with me to pick my brother’s jacket up before you go up to your meeting?’ The words are out before he can think them through.

Seriously, what has happened to his brain? It’s like it’s gone on a little holiday.

‘I’d like that,’ Castiel says before Dean has too much time to curl up and die of embarrassment.

They leave the lift together.

‘So, you were saying about Meg? She’s your friend?’ Dean asks, because even though he wants the conversation dropped, he’s still can’t help but push it till that tiny flicking ember of hope has been firmly extinguished.  

‘Yes. One of my best, actually.’ Castiel rubs a hand over his face. ‘We did have a, uh, a dalliance. Once. A few years back. We were both drunk, and it was very late.’

‘Yeah? What happened?’ Dean really wants to know what happened. He can’t imagine getting to kiss this man, and then wanting to give it up.

Castiel shrugs. ‘Things looked different in the morning. We decided that being friends and nothing more was better for us than trying something that might get awkward when we bumped into each other in the building. She’s now very happy with someone else, and I’m still very much single.’ Dean feels a bud at hope at Castiel slipping that information in, so casually at the end. That’s a hint, right?

‘So, her being all over you in front of everyone else?’ Dean asks. Castiel groans, and whoops, there are those images again.

‘She knows how I feel about getting hit on. And, as she pointed out to me, quite a few women in this building seem to think I’m something special. Like I said, the parties happen frequently enough that Meg feels the need to come and shield me from the worst of it.’

‘That’s a good friend,’ Dean says.

Castiel chuckles again, as Dean leads them through a door, into Sam’s office. The jacket is hanging on the back of his office chair.

But it’s dark in the office. And Dean feels very little qualms as he closes the door behind Castiel, pretending to check the hook at the back of the door.

‘So, uh…I am so sorry. I don’t even know your name,’ Castiel says. ‘How rude of me.’

‘Dean, man. I’m Dean.’

‘Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Dean. I’m Castiel, although I assume you know that.’ Castiel chuckles again. ‘Although most of my friends call me Cas, since Castiel is a bit of a mouthful.’ Dean’s making a mental list of words that this guy isn’t allowed to say.

Mouthful is one of them.

‘So, Dean, you’re a lawyer?’

‘No. No, I just do the admin for the firm. It’s my brother who’s the lawyer.’

‘Oh.’ Dean see’s Cas’s eyebrows rise at that. ‘You must be the new temp that everyone is raving about,’ Cas says.

‘Everyone’s raving about me?’ Dean says, sceptically.

‘You may have realised that this building talks a lot. Meg reports a lot of the gossip back to me, and according to her a lot of my admirers have come over to your side.’

‘Yeah?’ Dean asks. ‘Well that’s always nice to know.’

Dean doesn’t think he can draw this out any longer. Even though it’s dark outside the window, there’s enough moonlight shining through the office that if Dean pretends he still can’t see the jacket Cas might think he’s a bit of an idiot.

He goes over to the chair, slinging the jacket across his arm. ‘Well, this is what we came for. I guess we can get you to your meeting now.’ They leave, Dean standing a little bit closer to Cas than he did on the way to the office.

The lift is still on the 14th floor and the doors open straight away. They walk in, and Cas smiles at Dean, making his heartbeat pick up a little. They both go to the back wall, standing near enough to feel the other’s body heat.

Fuck it. Dean’s going to just go for it.

‘So, this fan club of yours,’ Dean says, clearing his throat a little.

‘Oh, God. I have been completely conceited, haven’t I?’ Cas is playing with the sleeve of his jumper. ‘Talking about fan-clubs and all those girls who throw themselves at me. I apologize.’ There’s a beat of silence. ‘You’ve made me a little nervous this evening.’ Cas is blushing again. Dean thinks it’s one of the cutest things he’s ever seen. 

‘You’ve never thought about have a ‘dalliance’ with one of the girls who seem so in love with you?’

‘Nothing since Meg, no.’ Cas is looking at him, just staring at Dean, and he can’t seem to move his gaze away either.

‘And what about men? Any of those in your fan club?’

‘Not that I’m aware of,’ Cas says. ‘But I wouldn’t mind if there were.’ That’s all it takes, and then Cas is leaning forwards, and Dean is leaning into him, and they’re kissing, up against the back wall of the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know trope one shots don’t usually get extended, and let’s be real, I don’t even know what this is. It took on a form of its own. Someone asked me in the comments to extend it and then my brain goes ‘yeah, if you did, you could do this’ and then I end up with stuff like this. I’m not promising that it’s going to be extended beyond these two, but I’m also not ruling out extending it completely because I do have ideas for little bits and pieces between Dean and Cas in the elevator.   
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, even though it’s slightly strange.

The elevator doors ping open and Dean takes a deep breath before getting inside. He avoids using this one as much as possible now, but the second elevator has been out of order all day. And he doesn’t really feel like taking the stairs yet again.

Dean glances at the back wall, a memory encroaching on his brain. He pushes it to the back of his mind. No point thinking about that now.

The elevator is empty, which Dean is always grateful for.

He takes point near the front of the doors, standing just by the panel of buttons, pushing for the top floor. His boss, Bobby Singer, needs to get Mr. Masters signature on some piece of paperwork, and Dean has been sent to get it.

The whole law firm act as personal lawyers for Mr. Masters, shifting him between the three owners whenever the one currently on his pay gets sick of his attitude.

When the doors close, Dean takes a step back. Damn it, he forgot about those photos of Sammy. It still alarms him every time he comes across one, his baby brother’s grinning face plastered on bus stops or once on a full page in a magazine.

The elevator takes a minute or so to move between floors, and Dean stares at his brother’s face to stop his mind from wandering to anywhere else.

The last time he was in this elevator, Castiel Novak had pushed him up against the back wall and kissed his brains out; that’s the only way Dean can describe it. He’d felt gooey and his legs had been wobbly when they’d finally left the elevator almost ten minutes after it reached their destination. It was lucky nobody had wanted it at that point, because Dean was so engrossed in kissing Cas that he wouldn’t have noticed the door opening and someone coming inside.

_Ping._ Dean steps from the elevator onto the black carpet, making his way to the only doors on this floor. Right at the end, there’s double glass doors, letting everyone see into an impressive sized office, a giant desk taking centre stage in the middle of the room.

Dean can see that Mr. Masters is sitting behind his desk, talking to someone on the other side. This will be the first time that Dean has met Mr. Masters, and he can’t say he’s relishing the meeting. There’s something about the guy’s eyes, so cold and cool as he stares out of the photos that line his hallway of him meeting important and famous figures. Dean feels like all the eyes are following him.

The guy inside the office stands up, and Dean steps up the door, making his first eye contact with Mr. Masters. He raises the brown envelope in his hand, showing him the law firm stamp on the back. Mr. Masters nods, and gestures for him to come in.

It’s only as Dean steps into the room that he registers the messy dark hair on the other guy. The blue jumper, and the dark jeans.

There’s an almost electric shock through him, followed by excitement and then anger.

‘Yes?’ Mr. Masters barks at Dean. Dean blinks. He’s come to a stop almost at the doorway. He clears his throat, hurrying to the desk, careful to keep distance between him and Castiel Novak.

The guy who hasn’t even bothered to call him since their kissing session almost two weeks ago.

The guy Dean hasn’t been able to stop thinking about.

‘From Harvelle, Singer and Turner,’ Dean says, handing the envelope to Mr. Masters. ‘Bobby needs you to sign it.’ Mr. Masters gives a long-suffering sigh, then pushes away from his desk, to grab a pen off the bookcase behind him.

‘You the new PA?’ Mr. Masters asks. Dean gives a short nod. He can feel Castiel – or Cas as he’d been told to call him – looking at him, but he keeps his gaze steady.

‘Yes, sir,’ Dean says.

‘Well good luck. Bobby gets through 2 PA’s a month.’ Dean shrugs. He’d heard all the rumours about Bobby before accepting this job offer. Sure, the man’s a little grouchy and likes things done a certain way, but Dean can handle it. ‘Didn’t he throw something at the last one?’ Mr. Masters asks. ‘Bobby was lucky it missed.’

‘Bobby Singer?’ Cas speaks for the first time, and Dean feels every nerve ending in his body stand to attention. ‘I’ve been shooting with him a few times. If Bobby Singer was aiming at you, he’d hit you.’

‘I’m good at ducking,’ Dean says, instantly regretting it. He doesn’t look to see if Cas has heard him, just clears his throat.

How long can it take to sign one piece of paper?

‘Here you are then,’ Mr. Masters says, handing him the envelope back. ‘If Bobby’s my lawyer this week, no doubt I’ll be seeing quite a lot of you.’ Mr. Masters turns from him then, turning to Cas. ‘I’ll see you later in the week, too Cas.’

‘Of course,’ Cas says. The two men shakes hands, and Dean knows he should already be making his way back to the elevator but he doesn’t. He stands there like an idiot, waiting for Cas to leave, before following him, past the photos and back to the elevator.

 Dean’s not entirely sure what he’s praying for here. Someone else to get in with them, or to be stuck in this place with Cas again?

He’s not sure which emotion is stronger within him; the need to speak to Cas, or the humiliation that could come from speaking with Cas.

The doors close, and it’s just them.

‘Dean,’ Cas says. Dean, who’s gone right to the back of the elevator, in the far corner, glances at Cas and then away again.

‘Mr. Novak,’ he says back, nodding his head slightly.

‘That’s how you’re going to play it?’ Cas asks. Dean, with his head down, notes Cas’s feet moving slightly towards him.  

‘What? You expect me to just let you push me up against the wall again, is that it?’ Dean asks. He looks up now, meeting Cas’s gaze.

He instantly wishes he hadn’t. Because now of course all he wants to do is be pushed up against the wall by Cas.

‘I wasn’t expecting anything. Although now you mention it…’ Cas lets his sentence trail away, a smirk on his face.

Dean finds himself wondering if it would really be so bad. He knows it would be good of course, really good if memory serves him correctly. And would it really be so wrong to kiss Cas again, to trail his fingers through that shock of dark hair, to tilt that still smirking face up to meet his lips, to tug the shirt from the waistband…

No. Dean has lost a lot over the years, but he still has his pride. He doesn’t want to be treated like a plaything, and the best way to not be treated like something, is to not let yourself be treated that way.

‘What? You want round two before you ghost me again?’ Dean asks. Cas frowns.

‘Ghost you?’ Cas shakes his head from side to side. ‘I didn’t really have you down as the role-playing type of guy, but hey, if that’s what turns you on. Do you want me to put a sheet over my head?’

‘You don’t know what ghosting someone is?’ Dean asks. Dammit. He really shouldn’t find that cute – scratch that, he finds it fucking adorable. All things being fair he only knows what ghosting is because Sam had to explain it to him after Charlie was in the toilet in tears after being ghosted by some chick on the internet. But Dean thinks it’s a very fitting term for what Cas has done to him.

‘It’s where you lead someone on, and then disappear completely. No calls, no texts. No coming into their offices and seeing if they’d like to go out for lunch one day. No contact even though the other person thought they might mean more than some hook up before a party,’ Dean explains. He thinks that’s the gist of ghosting anyway. It was kind of hard to hear Sam over Charlie’s wails.

‘Oh,’ Cas says. His expression has changed now. Instead of smirking and looking at Dean playfully, he’s folded his arms across his chest and is looking a little shamefaced.

Well, good. He should be ashamed. ‘I’m sorry if you felt that’s what I did to you.’

‘Are you denying it?’ Dean asks. His mind starts whirling with a hundred possibilities. He’s replayed that night over a few times, but time does blur memories. Maybe Cas has tried to get in contact? Leaving a message with one of the lawyers’ assistants and they just didn’t pass it along? Dean knows some of them in the office love Cas just as much as the magazine girls, so it wouldn’t surprise him.

‘No,’ Cas says, and Dean’s fantasies die away. ‘I haven’t handled this very well, I admit. I didn’t know if you’d want me coming into the office, or even if you wanted something more with me. Office romances never seem to work out, do they?’ Cas asks, and Dean remembers Cas admitting he’s called a hook up before as they both worked in the same building.

‘I think I made it pretty clear how much I wanted you, Cas,’ Dean says. Their eyes meet and a flash of heat passes between them, the memory of bodies leaning against each other, of hardness pressing against thighs, and groans that echoed in this small metal box seeming to stretch in their eyeline.

Maybe Cas is right, though. Dean could have gone to his floor and asked to speak to him. There’s not a lot of point being mad at Cas for something Dean didn’t do either.

‘Not to mention I haven’t been here,’ Cas says. ‘The charity surprised me with a trip to visit one of the small villages we’ve spent years helping out. I only got back a few days ago.’ When he speaks about his work, his face changes again, Dean notices. There’s like an inner light that shines from inside him, now beaming out at the world.

Dean’s heart that he thought was hardened beyond cracking when he first got into this elevator, splits completely, the casing falling away. ‘I know it’s an excuse, but you have to admit not being in the same country is a pretty good one for leaving you hanging.’

‘I guess,’ Dean admits. He shuffles a couple of steps forward, noting that Cas’s eyes dart to measure the new distance between them.

‘So, what now?’ Dean asks. ‘Do you still believe that office romances never work out and that there’s no point even trying?’ He’s been inching closer to Cas all this time, who, to give him his due is doing his fair share to close the distance between them too.

‘There is nothing in this world that I don’t believe in trying,’ Cas says.

‘Is that so?’ Dean asks. This time he’s the one who backs Cas up to the side of the elevator, the slim man trapped between the mirrors on the wall and Dean.

‘Uh-huh,’ Cas says, nodding his head slightly, the hairs on top of head ticking Dean every time he moves forward. ‘But, just before we do this, you should give me your number. Just so there’s no confusion once we leave this elevator.’

‘Sounds good,’ Dean says. He makes no move to draw out his phone, however. He’ll make sure Cas gets it.

But right now, there are more pressing matters he needs to attend to.


End file.
